Chapter Text
Zach was waking up slowly, being awoken by the toilet being flushed. He sighed, cursing the shared bathroom he had with his sister. He cursed his sister even more when she decided to sneak into his bedroom, letting herself fall on the bed beside him.
"Jamie" he groaned "It's still too early for me to be awake."
His sister snorted, pushing him lightly, with no real strengh, still tired.
"Please, you're the one who's always up early...beside it's past ten."
The seventeen year old teenager frowned at the information. He fumbled his nightstand, looking for the watch his mom had gave him when he was still a kid, her own watch, but Zach frowned even more, not finding it. It should have been there. He looked at his phone instead, seeing Jamie was right.
"Then, why moms aren't awake yet?" he asked surprised.
Jamie turned her head toward her brother, her brown hair hitting his face. She had an eyebrow up, but then she frowned.
"Mom drank a bit too much last night." she recalled him.
It was Christmas's eve and everyone had been invited at the Sawyer-Danvers's house. The Superfriends were there along with the Legends and their kids, and Team flash and Team Arrow. The last group had travelled back to Earth one after the party, but the Legends, along with Barry, Iris, Caitlin and Cisco had stayed, spending the night off at aunt Kara and Lena's house.
"Come on," pleaded Zach "it wasn't that bad..."
The redhead boy avoided his sister's fake glare and smirk.
"Mom sang All I want for Christmas is you and cried when mama told her she was married so she couldn't go out with her." recounted the fiften year old girl.
Zach laughed, remembering how miserable the big bad Agent Danvers had became. His mama had to take her wife upstairs to comfort her. Everyone else had left a bit later after that.
"Still, moms are usually awake way before that." insisted Zach.
Jamie leaned up on her elbow, lifting her hand to rub her eyes. Christmas's eve was always the night they all celebrated together, all the families, but on the 25th, it was just the four of them and by then, Alex and Maggie should have been awake.
"Yeah, you're right, it's weird. Let's go see if they're okay." the young brunette proposed, getting out of bed.
Zach got up too, trading his short for black sweatpants and put on a black v-neck as well. He rejoined his sister who was back from her bedroom, putting on their mama's NCPD sweatshirt. Maggie wasn't working for the precinct anymore, but she had kept a few pieces of clothes when she had accepted Jonn's proposition to work for the DEO. She helped Alex with the rookies's training and still went out in the field a couple of times, while Alex stayed mostly in the lab these days.
The siblings walked down the hallway when Jamie stopped her brother with a shaky hand. Zach followed her brown eyes, blinking at the frames on the wall. He got closer, tipping his head at the pictures. Their moms weren't in any of it, while Jamie and Zach were still in most of them. The one in the middle, that had been taken ten years ago on the beach in Midvale, was Alex's favorite photograph. Uncle James had taken it. They were all sitting down on the sand and Gertrude, the german sheperd still alive at that time, was laying in front of them with her tongue out. But right now, it was just Jamie and Zach, smiling, for no goddam's reason, as the rest of their family had disappeared.
Zach was brought back to reality as her sister took a couple of shivery breath and ran down the hall to their moms's bedroom. She pushed the door open, her eyes surveying the room. The redhead boy swallowed and followed his sister, entering the room slowly before walking back outside right away.
It was a bedroom, that part was clear, but it wasn't their moms's. It wasn't the king size bed, in which Zach had spent number of times jumping on it until his mama would yell at him to stop. It wasn't the bed Jamie was sneaking into during thunderstorms.
The youngest Sawyer-Danvers stayed, trying to find any indication that this was a trick, a freaking dumb joke. She turned the room upside down, not finding anything related to her moms. She ran back downstairs where her brother was standing, eyes fixating on the christmas's tree.
"Z...what the hell is going" she whispered, not daring to voice out loud the gravity of the situation. "Please tell me it's just our mothers being stupid again."
The boy didn't answer, trying to think, to find a rational explanation. The brunette paced around the room, going from the kitchen to find a too bare fridge, to the living room to find Zach's surf competitions trophies and her own baseball's medals. Her brother still hadn't moved as she was running around the house trying to find something. Anything.
Zach finally broke out of his daze, hearing his sister's wavering breath. He found her in their mom's office, her hand against her heart, the other around her throat. He rushed to her, grabbing both of her hands as he tried to appear calm like his mama taught him to be.
"Hey, hey, Jamie, breathe okay? Take a deep breath. Here, do like me."
He left her hand on her heart and moved the other one to his own. He inhaled and exhaled a couple of times, still murmuring words of encouragement. He sighed, relieved, as Jamie seemed to focus on his voice and his heartbeat. Once she finally calmed down, he hugged her close, probably a bit too tightly.
"We're gonna figure this out, okay? Together." he tried to reassure her.
Zach looked around the room, noticing the too immaculate walls, the stainless desk and the white thin computer. This wasn't Alex Danvers's office. Jamie pulled back from him, wiping the remaining tears that were slidding down her freckles. Freckles that Zach shared too. It was pretty much the only common trait they had, Zachariah looking like every bit of Alex Danvers while Jamie was a carbon copy of Maggie Sawyer.
"Our stuffs are still in the house, Z. Which means that whatever happened, it's not totally set in stone." noted Jamie.
The tall boy moved toward the computer. He sat down in front of it, opening it. A blank page appeared in front of him.
"You think the AI is still the same?" his sister asked.
He shrugged, taking a deep breath. Every houses nowadays had an AI. They were pretty much controlling everything. Maggie had fought Alex about the idea, saying someone could easily hack into the program and control the whole world. The redhead had asked Winn to reinforce their security system to reassure her wife.
"Gertrude, show me where Maggie Sawyer is" Zach called out, giving his mama's name before the marriage.
Multiple articles were shot at him, dizzying him. He saw one of the Catco online magazine and another from the Daily Planet. Both shared similar titles. Tragedy. Local hero was shot dead. / Detective Sawyer lost the final fight.
"According to the public archives, Detective Sawyer is buried at the National City's cemetary alongside the NCPD's finest. Detective Sawyer was killed in 2019 by an ex-girlfriend." Gertrude informed them.
Both young hearts stopped for several beats. Jamie gasped, a hand flying to her mouth to cover a sob as Zach froze, looking at the picture of his mother's obituary. Her dimpled smile and her smart shining brown eyes, those he knew for a fact his mom never got tired of looking at. Those he admired, those his sister shared.
"2019? Moms had me in 2020" Zach muttered "Ex-girlfriend? That means they weren't together anymore by then"
His sister moved, almost pushing him out of the way, her shoulder squared as she stood in front of the computer.
"Gertrude" she barked aggressively "Show me where Alex Danvers is."
Another serie of photos appeared, along with a video. Their mom was there, walking slowly in a alleyway, her gun raised as she approached a woman who was crawling on the floor.
"Many local business's cameras recorded former Agent Alexandra Danvers killing in cold blood Colleen Mcshire. Miss Danvers is currently purging a life sentence at National City's prison."
"Oh god" commented Jamie, forcing herself to breathe.
Zach's eyes were flying over the screen, trying to figure this whole thing out. What the hell had happened to their moms?
"Who was Colleen Mcshire?" Zach asked again, proding for more informations, trying to stay calm.
The picture of a tall brunette showed up on the screen. She looked ordinary, with long hair and squared glasses. She was a pharmacist.
"Miss Mcshire was the one responsable for Detective Sawyer's death. It appeared that after an accident, Mcshire became addicted to medications and lost her job after being caught stealing them. Detective Sawyer was handling her case at the time." Gertrude informed them.
Zach went back to the video, noticing the sound wasn't great. Jamie watched her sibling as he was scrolling through the Internet to find every version of the scene, his hands up, hovering the screen without touching it. After a moment, he scrabbled the whole thing together and pressed play. Jamie shook her head. She would never understand how this worked, even after the million explanations her uncle Winn had gave her.
"Wh-why did you killed her?!" they could hear their mom say.
"She's a liar! She said she'd always be there for me...but she was never mine! She was still in love with you. She didn't show it, she did her best to hide it, but I knew it!"
On the video, they could see Alex kneeling down to grab the woman by her throat. She loaded her gun, pointing it at the brunette's head.
"You killed her because she didn't love you like you wanted her to?" her voice was as hard as it was shaky.
"You killed her first...the day you told her you couldn't be with her..." she replied silently.
Both kids frowned at the information. Zach heard the woman choke under her mom's hand.
"And now, I'm gonna kill you." the agent told her slowly between her teeth.
They both jumped hearing the gunshot. Jamie trembled as she watched her mother drop her gun and her phone beside the body, walking away numbly out of the alley.
"Miss Danvers found Colleen Mcshire's secure location as she was waiting for her trial. She broke her out of the safe house and killed her in a random alley. She was arrested at her apartment and didn't resist. She pleaded guilty right away at her trial and has been in jail ever since." Gertrude explained.
Jamie took a few steps back, trying to comprehend what was going on.
"Shit, Z. Somebody messed up with the timeline. We gotta fix it." announced Jamie with determination.
Zach nodded slowly, trying to think. He looked up at his sister, starting to get up before he collapsed on the floor hardly, his whole body shaking painfully.
"Zach!" yelled Jamie as she threw herself beside her brother to mobolize him.
Her hands went through him for a second before she was able to grab him by his arms, pinning him to herself. His teeth were clashing together as she put her forehead against his jaw to stop him from hurting himself.
"What the hell..." she muttered as she watched her brother slowly stabilizing.
The redhead boy was still shaking, sweat covering his neck as he fought to keep his eyes open.
"You're right" he croaked weakly "We gotta fix it...before I disappear too."
The Sawyer-Danvers kids didn't lose any time to formulate a plan. Seemed pretty simple in theory. Go to the DEO's old desert base, take the Legend's waverider, go back in time and save their mothers's relationship even though they had no idea as of why things had ended between the two of them.
"We gotta convince two of the most stubborn women to get back together. Great. This should be easy." Jamie commented as Zach and her were getting off the train.
Not much had changed in the outside world, which felt pretty odd to the teenagers as their whole world had shifted. Their contact list in their phone was still there but no one seemed to know them, not even Mateo, James's son and Zach's best friend. And on top of it all, their lives were literally on a count down.
"Look, it's all we can do, Jamie. I can't think of anything else to fix this. Moms have been together for 20 years and somehow that changed. It's up to us to show them what is at stake."
Jamie nodded gravely, following her brother through the empty forest that led to the old base that wasn't operating anymore, after a radioactive alien had died in the DEO command center. Lucy Lane had contained the leak and with the help of Supergirl, they had condemned the underground quarters, much to Lucy and Alex's dismay. Zach was hoping that it was still the case.
"Remember all the tales Aunt Vasquez and Aunt Lucy used to tell us about mom kicking all the rookies's ass when they thought they could beat her because she's a woman. Men can be such idiots sometimes" Zach scoffed.
The teenager has always been surrounded by strong women and he always admired them. And with great examples of men such as his grandpa Jonn, uncle Winn and uncle James, he never felt his masculinity being threatened, despite the assholes at school trying to undermine him. He learned pretty young how lucky he was to have been born into this family.
"Ugh, tell me about it. I've spent so much time with you I never want to date a boy" sighed Jamie, teasing him.
Zach shook his head, pushing his sister lightly on the shoulder.
"That'll make moms happy. But don't try to fool me sis, " he retorted with a raised finger "you think that I'm not aware of your secret little rendez vous on Earth one with Damon for some sword teaching."
Jamie looked at him, wide eyes, before rolling them.
"You're the one to talk. Nora Allen keep running here to see you." she told him with a smirk.
The redhead shrugged, scratching his forehead.
"We both like science, we're simply working on projects..." Zach trailed on.
"Nerds." she mocked gently.
Zach fake kicked his sister but the girl moved to the side, used to his antics.
"We can't all be brutes like you and Damon. He think he's so cool with his dark hair and dark eyes and dark skin." sneered the big brother.
Jamie rolled her eyes once more, shaking her head.
"Sounds like you're the one with a crush on him, Z" she replied.
"Shut up sis. All I'm saying is you should be careful with him." Zach said as he moved the last branch of tree out of his face.
The girl snorted at his over protectiveness.
"Why? Because he's Damon Lance Al ghul, the son of the Demon heir." she asked with a deep sultry low tone.
Zach managed to not laugh at the perfect imitation as they walked the empty place.
"If I were you, I wouldn't make fun of my future mother in law like that. Specially if that woman is Nyssa Al Ghul." advised the older sibling "Mom doesn't even look scary compared to that woman. Just, don't tell her I said that. "
Jamie shook her head then stopped walking when her brother lifted an hand. Zach took his phone out.
"Gertrude, get into contact with Gideon, will you?" the redhead asked.
Both teenagers waited for half a minute before the waverider appeared in front of them. Jamie whistled, still impressed every time she saw the ship. The main door to the cargo bay opened loudly. Jamie and Zach entered the Waverider with broad smiles.
"Hello, Mr and Miss Sawyer-Danvers, I was expecting you." Gideon welcomed them.
Jamie lifted an eyebrow at her words as she approached the main room.
"Wait, you know who we are? You didn't forget us?" the young girl asked putting her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket.
"Hard to forget the people that tried to replace me with a fresh AI named after their deceased dog" Gideon told them in her constant calm robotic voice.
Zach looked at the floor sheepishly as Jamie rolled her eyes at him.
"Besides, I'm assuming you are here because of the anachronism that caused the seperation of Agent Danvers and Detective Sawyer" Gideon said.
The redhead teenager took a step forward, his hands on his hips as Jamie leaned on the console.
"Anachronism? Do we know what it is?" Zach questioned.
"It doesn't seem to be anything specific, Mr. Zachariah. Seems like the separation was simply not supposed to happen." Gideon answered.
Zach sighed as Jamie nodded slowly.
"Well, that's comforting." she commented. "Guess we should just strap in and get on the road, then."
The brunette moved toward the chairs when a whoosh stopped her. The girl fell on the floor with the force of it.
"Who are you and how did you found this ship?"
Zach turned toward the new coming, hands raised in front of him. He froze, taking in the sight of Supergirl. He walked slowly toward his sister, helping her getting up, still not taking his eyes off his aunt.
"What the hell, aun..."
"Sis!" Zach shut her up.
Jamie bit her cheek, getting annoyed by the whole situation. Supergirl was floating, a bit higher than them. Her red and blue suit was slightly different. Instead of wearing a skirt, she was wearing pants and the tone of the colors seems to be way darker.
The woman let herself down, eyeing Zach with trembling lips. She approached him slowly, her hands reaching forward, cradling softly the teenager's face. She traced his freckles with her thumb and pushed back his hair, trailing her fingers to the end of it on his neck. With her fingertips, she caressed his eyebrow and looked into his eyes intently.
"Are you from the future or another earth?" She asked with such a low voice, the teenagers barely heard her.
Zach shook his head kindly. He seek his sister out of the corner of his eyes and she nodded at him.
"We're from this earth, this time." He told her.
Supergirl took a step back with a hurt and a disappointment in her eyes.
"You look so much like her." She whispered, still studying him.
The blonde shook her head, then looked at Jamie. She squinted at her, as if she was trying to recall where she had seen her before.
"You both aren't supposed to be here. This is a private location and this ship belong to my friends. I don't know how you got in there or what your intentions are, but I am here to stop you."
Jamie nodded once, sending Supergirl a quizzical look.
"As convincing as this speech was Aunt Kara, we really gotta get going."
Supergirl's eyes got wide, her hands trembling on her hips. Zach slapped Jamie on the arm.
"Ow! What was that for?" the teenager cried out.
"What was that for?! She doesn't know who we are, idiots! Because in this timelime, we don't exist!"
Jamie pushed him off with a growl.
"Then I'm sorry for wanting to speed this up! You were the one who disappeared on me, Z! If you die, I'll be alone for God knows how long before I disappear too! Something messed up our timelime, so excuse me if I don't care about the rules!"
They both glared at each other, Jamie trying to tower her brother, despite her height.
"Oh Rao, what is going on?" Kara murmured with her hands in her hair.
Zach walked back toward his aunt, putting his hand on her shoulders. Kara lifted her head, her terrified eyes meeting his.
"Deep down, you felt it, didn't you?" He talked lowly in a soft voice "I look like her because I'm her son."
Kara cut off a shaky sob with her hand. She raised a hand toward Jamie, her fingers interweaving between the brunette's streak of hair.
"I don't understand...my sister never had a child. Let alone two. I...she has been in jail for over 18 years." Kara argued.
Jamie crossed her arms over her chest, frowning at her aunt.
"Yeah we know, but that wasn't supposed to happen. For some reasons, our mothers broke up before they even got married."
The blonde woman watched the young girl with a haunted look.
"Maggie?" Kara asked with a broken voice.
The kids nodded and Kara blinked away her tears
"Alex and Maggie broke up because she..." Supergirl stopped herself.
Jamie approached her with a solid stance while Zach calmed his sister down with a hand on her elbow.
"Because she what?" she insisted.
Kara shook her head, regretting opening her mouth.
"Because Alex wanted kids and Maggie didn't." she finally told them.
The brunette looked down at the floor, confused then dejected. She turned toward her brother with tears in her eyes. The boy shook his head, not knowing what to tell her, not knowing how he felt.
You killed her first...the day you told her you couldn't be with her.
"I thought they loved each other more than anything in the world" Jamie whispered.
Kara took a few steps toward the girl, her eyes pleading.
"They did! They did, trust me. My sister took a decision that broke both of their hearts, but she never stopped loving her" Kara cried out, tears falling down her cheek "Rao, she avenged Maggie's death despite all my attempts to stop her!"
"She did it out of guilt!" yelled Jamie, not afraid to face the woman of steel. "She didn't care about killing that woman, she didn't even fee guilty for that. She didn't fight at the trial because she wanted to punish herself for my mother's death!"
Zach circled his sister from behind as the girl fought him.
"Jamie calm down, you don't know that. You don't know anything!"
She stopped fighting him as she lifted her head to look into Kara's eyes. She gritted her teeth as she asked:
"Well, am I wrong?"
The blonde took a few careful steps toward her, wiping the teenager's tears as Zach swallowed his own.
"You said it wasn't supposed to happen. My sister said the same thing when Maggie was murdered. Maybe you guys can fix this. Maybe you can mend things between the two of them." Kara told them with a growing confidence.
She hug them tightly as hard as she could without breaking them.
"You guys are Alex and Maggie's kids. With their blood in yours, you're unstoppable."